Opinion

Each year, there’s always a few shows that return to the Fringe for another run. Quite often, we’ve seen them before. Sometimes, we’ve loved them. These are a few of our favourites that are coming back to Fringe 2018.

Original Review: “This very realisation has hit female duo Stiff and Kitsch hard. Most of the show is focussed on their disastrous love lives and how that should give rise to global success, just like Adele. But they are not Adele, they are everyone else, who mess up and say the wrong things… They seem an unlikely pairing but their on-stage chemistry and their singing, at times eye-wateringly funny, at others thought-provoking and insightful, is sensational.” [Aisling McGuire] ★★★★✩

Original Review: “Set in Hull [it] follows two kids from different sides of the tracks, both born on the same day, across three decades of their lives… Loud and somewhat frenetic, there’s a real energy and pace to this piece of gig-theatre. It’s brilliantly conceived and performed, offering us an ironic reflection on an oh-so-familiar story. It’s all about lost dreams and the consumerism that can derail our lives.” [Kerry Teakle]
★★★★✩

Original Review:“This is no simple cover music recital… Christine Bovill’s Paris is a mesmerising hour of delightful storytelling and blissful song [that] transports us to a Parisian jazz club after just one verse… She shows us that we don’t need to interpret the lyrics on an intellectual level but can instead connect with the songs on an emotional level through sound – just like she first did as a teenager in Glasgow, she recounts… C’est sublime.” [Matthew Keeley] ★★★★★

Original Review: “An impressionistic piece, capturing all the alienation, fuzzy-headedness and existential anxiety of a traveller adrift in the lazy, hazy, passionate world of Latin America. Davis, swigging from a bottle, morphs from himself into a beer-sozzled, self-pitying lion character for a series of bar-room conversations about love, life and the universe.” [Robert Peacock] ★★★★★

Original Review:“Women of Indigenous, Pacific Islander and Indonesian heritage taking on colonialism, sexism, gender stereotypes and racism through confronting performance and humour… This show packs a potent punch of hip-hop politics, serving up dance, poetry, comedy, circus, striptease and song… Six empowered women teach us about society, culture and smashing the patriarchy.” [Kerry Teakle] ★★★★✩

Original Review: “Exactly what Kearns does is quite hard to define. It’s comedy, but there are few to no jokes. Yet it is original, brave and very funny… The pace is almost relentless and only lets up when Kearns banters with the audience or touches the wall. Without revealing too many spoilers, the show contains a bet which wins against all odds, and turns into an emotional yet hilarious story that highlights the fragility and absurdity of life.” [Luke Hooman] ★★★★★

Original Review:“Lost Voice Guy does not want to be one of your ‘inspirational’ disabled people, he’s OK being a useless lazy arse like the rest of us… There’s a savage, cathartic beauty about bringing the unsayable into the comedy sphere, and for those who enjoy a dash of inappropriateness, Lost Voice Guy is your go-to. He ‘goes there’ in a way other people can’t. Witness his talk of being sent to a neo-Nazi death camp, or his themed game show Play Your Crips Right, in which the audience has to guess who’s the most disabled. Utterly unspeakable, but utterly hilarious.” [Robert Peacock] ★★★★✩

Original Review: “Probably best known for his BBC Scotland videos starring his young daughter… Nelson branches out his comedic talents to include a broad range of subjects from the absurdities of the Trump presidency to the uselessness of millennials with the same razor-sharp wit… [He] isn’t afraid to go to the darker edges of comedy for his jokes, as he admits at the start of the show, those expecting the more family-friendly humour of his BBC videos are in for a shock.” [Adam Thornton] ★★★★★

Original Review: “A lone man struts up and down, looking exactly like a character you’d find in a video game, lit only by a small torch he holds under his chin… He takes no prisoners as he wields his weapon of choice – a harsh and witty tongue, with occasional undertones of kinkiness. The game itself … [is] a reflection of the original text based adventure games… While being inventive and unusual, it doesn’t rely on gimmick – there are just as many laughs as you’d hope to have in a stand-up show.” [Tamarin Fountain] ★★★★✩

Original Review:“This improv show isn’t just fun and fluff. [Peter Michael Marino] is direct about his own social anxieties and experiences with depression, drawing on personal memories to engage and provoke us… We are now the co-writers, creating the next act as we are probed for information from Marino about crucial memories and life moments – preferably funny or heinous, sometimes both at the same time… Show Up provides brilliant laughs and is worth repeat visits to fully appreciate its ever-changing nature.” [Matthew Keeley] ★★★★✩